AAAS and ASPPH Fellows at EPA
Published November 13, 2024.
Since 1981, EPA has had a cooperative agreement with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to sponsor the AAAS/EPA Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Program (STPF). The goal of the program is to foster scientifically informed, evidence-based policy by engaging scientists and engineers learning firsthand about policymaking and implementation at the federal level and to build science-driven leadership that benefits all people. Since the inception of the program, 513 fellows have been placed at various EPA labs and centers.
Similarly, through cooperative agreement with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) since 2003, EPA has sponsored the ASPPH/EPA Environmental Health Fellowship Program. The program provides training opportunities for early career public health professionals on current and emerging environmental public health needs. Since the inception of the program, 146 fellows have been placed at various offices, centers, and regions.
We asked current and past participants of EPA’s AAAS and ASPPH fellowship programs to share their experiences and accomplishments from their time at the agency. Read their responses below.
- Kara Takasaki, Office of Research and Development
- Elizabeth Tapanes, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
- Sierra Brantz, Office of the Chief Financial Officer
- Niamh Tierney, Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Kara Takasaki, Ph.D. (Office of Research and Development, AAAS Fellow)
How does your fellowship training at EPA help protect human health and the environment?
My fellowship is focused on promoting and standardizing cumulative impacts assessment and cumulative impacts research at the EPA. Cumulative impacts are the totality of exposures to chemical and nonchemical stressors and their effects on health, well-being, and quality of life outcomes. During my fellowship, I am working with colleagues to develop, define, and strengthen the science behind assessing cumulative impacts so that the EPA can provide more accurate and useful information to interested stakeholders, such as residents, community-based organizations, environmental health program managers, and city, state, and federal policy decision makers. My background as a social scientist with expertise in combining qualitative and quantitative methods to study the economic, political, and cultural ways that race and gender inequality persist, helps me contribute to the ways that EPA can assess the interaction of chemical and non-chemical stressors in historically marginalized communities.
What accomplishment during your fellowship training at EPA are you most proud of?
I’ve used my background in social science research methods to strengthen the social science research infrastructure in EPA and to consult on the development of cumulative impact assessment research design and evaluation across several EPA regions.
What are you most excited to work on next?
I am looking forward to incorporating information from literature reviews into informative and useful written documents. With a few other social scientists, I will be writing a paper on how qualitative data is used to inform policy decision-making. I am also starting to work on a team in EPA’s Region 2 collaborating with an Indian Nation on a cumulative impact assessment. I am also part of a group that will be gathering information on the ways that EPA could be compensating for community knowledge, especially following Executive Orders (EO) 12985 and 14008.
What skills/knowledge have you gained during your time at EPA that you find most valuable?
Because environmental health science wasn’t my area of Ph.D. studies, I have learned a lot of new information about cumulative impacts and environmental justice research that EPA supports in a short period of time. Although I am analyzing and communicating that research, not conducting it, learning about the different ways that EPA regulates different environmental media and the indicators that EPA uses to assess environmental health is helping me contribute to the effort of institutionalizing cumulative impacts research.
Do you have any advice for candidates pursuing a fellowship training position at EPA?
I’ve found it exciting to be working on these comprehensive and complex challenges with the people at EPA, and especially to see how the Agency is striving to incorporate social science to meet these challenges. My advice would be to take full advantage of the opportunity to meet and chat with your co-workers about their career trajectories and the work that they do, especially if you’re new to the federal government and the research areas, like I was. Informal chats can be helpful because like any institution, EPA has a history and its own idiosyncrasies in how it operates and gets things done.
Elizabeth Tapanes, Ph.D. (Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, AAAS Fellow)
How does your fellowship training at EPA help protect human health and the environment?
I am an AAAS S&TP Fellow hosted at EPA in the Emerging Technologies Branch of the Office of Pesticide Programs. I am part of a group that engages with various stakeholders to help chart policy initiatives and regulations on genetically engineered pesticides (e.g., trees, microbes). I conduct literature reviews and draft documents on the impacts of genetically engineered organisms on the environment and human health. Specifically, I am working to improve the understanding of conservation and agricultural biotechnology.
What accomplishment during your fellowship training at EPA are you most proud of?
Among the several areas of interest I pursued during my fellowship year, I am most proud of the project I started that focused on identifying regulatory challenges and opportunities for conservation biotechnology products (e.g., not-for-profit genetic technology used to help threatened or endangered organisms). As a conservation biologist, I’m passionate about this work because the statistics on tree, wildlife, and island health are sobering. For example, approximately 50% of species worldwide are declining, including more than 50% of insect, bird, amphibian, and mammalian populations. Biotechnology holds so much promise for helping us protect some of the most imperiled species, such as the endangered honeycreepers in Hawaii. Products of conservation biology present unique issues for the U.S. regulatory system. I hope my work from my AAAS fellowship year will contribute to a regulatory system that anticipates the needs of conservation efforts.
What are you most excited to work on next?
I’m most excited to continue contributing to the important work of the Emerging Technologies Branch as a permanent employee! In this role, I hope to broaden my horizons on the complex challenges facing the branch such as navigating policy and regulation for emerging and new innovations in agriculture and conservation. I am also looking forward to continuing to engage our partners, developers, and the public. I hope that these actions, and specifically my work, can further conservation biotechnology.
What skills/knowledge have you gained during your time at EPA that you find most valuable?
The fellowship gave me the opportunity to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of issues on conservation and sustaining biodiversity. For example, I have a clearer understanding of how to protect species and the environment within the confines of U.S. laws and policies (e.g., Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Endangered Species Act). I used my time in the fellowship to foster connections in the conservation and biotechnology communities. I was able to share the knowledge I gained on the intersection of these issues with my colleagues.
Do you have any advice for candidates pursuing a fellowship training position at EPA?
One of the most valuable aspects of my year at EPA was the time I spent engaging (and connecting) with other people. This includes engaging with stakeholders, my colleagues, and other fellows. I have made some unexpected connections and new friends. At the end of the day, I believe it’s those connections and the trust that you can build with people that can genuinely drive science policy forward. My advice for candidates pursuing a fellowship at EPA is to cultivate enduring relationships.
Sierra Brantz (Office of the Chief Financial Officer, ASPPH Fellow)
How does your fellowship training at EPA help protect human health and the environment?
My fellowship training at EPA protects human health and the environment by incorporating public health and environmental concepts into speeches and presentations that are presented at international conferences and at future Peace Corps training workshops that will directly impact local partners. As part of my fellowship, I am learning from EPA’s evaluation team who works with a variety of programs and projects to carry out the Evidence Act, a federal policy act that requires federal agencies to develop evidence to support policymaking. Evidence is important when implementing or adapting projects and programs because it shows where there are areas of improvement or success. Furthermore, I joined EPA’s One Health team who works to show the interconnectedness between human health, animals, and the environmental across the agency and beyond to encourage a more holistic approach to better protect the environment and our health.
What accomplishment during your fellowship training at EPA are you most proud of?
I am most proud of my recent accomplishment of traveling to Eastern Europe where I had to two main goals: 1) Increase both my network and knowledge of the environmental health successes and challenges facing the Western Balkans through conferences and 2) Attend a Peace Corps workshop to scope out areas where environmental and health topics can be incorporated for local skill development. I am also proud of the speeches and presentations that I helped create for various international environmental and health related conferences. What are you most excited to work on in 2024? In 2024, I am most excited to continue working on incorporating environmental and health aspects into Peace Corps workshops and trainings for local partners, developing Peace Corps volunteers’ skills, and building my international relations and evaluation skills along the way.
What skills or knowledge have you gained during your time at EPA that you find most valuable?
I gained knowledge in diplomacy relating to how EPA as a federal agency interacts with international partners and other federal agencies who do international work. I also gained knowledge in international evaluation through conferences and the projects I am working on as well as evidence building methods. I have had the opportunity to better hone my technical writing skills through co-developing speeches and presentations for a variety of audiences on an international scale. I have also further developed my interpersonal and networking skills through the various conferences and workshops I have attended.
Do you have any advice for candidates pursuing a fellowship training position at EPA?
My advice to candidates pursuing a fellowship at EPA would be to talk with other offices that are doing related work or work you are interested in because there are always opportunities to jump on other projects, attend meetings, or learn about the agency from different perspectives. In addition to this, join in on the opportunities your office has to offer whether that is an event planning committee or coffee break chats. These opportunities will allow you to become more known by the people in your office and give you a chance to learn more about what people do. Through these networking opportunities, I have been fortunate to make good friends throughout my office who further my interest in environmental health and help encourage me in the work I do. Overall, networking will enrich your fellowship experience and professional careers and could also make for lasting friendships.
Niamh Tierney (Office of the Chief Financial Officer Evidence and Evaluation Team, ASPPH Fellow)
How does your fellowship training at EPA help protect human health and the environment?
My fellowship training is focused on helping to support and encourage evidence-building activities and program evaluation in environmental and public health projects. These activities ensure that decisions are based in evidence and are achieving desired outcomes. These programs are vital for achieving EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment, and through my training in the evidence and evaluation space, I can contribute to that mission.
What accomplishment during your fellowship training at EPA are you most proud of?
Early on in my fellowship, my mentor and I discussed how to incorporate implementation and outcome evaluation into EPA’s updated Meaningful Involvement Policy, which outlines best practices for community involvement and encourages Agency programs to involve their communities in the decision-making process. We also discussed how to incorporate feedback from the public comment period into the evaluation component. It was a lot of work; however, this was an exciting and impactful opportunity, and I am very proud of the work we contributed.
What are you most excited to work on in 2024?
In 2024, I am most excited to continue working on an agency-wide pilot program which assists EPA programs with utilizing evidence-building and evaluation activities to answer questions and inform decision-making. Through this pilot, offices and regions from across the agency submitted short-term evaluation proposals, and my colleagues and I have been working closely with the proposal teams and General Services Administration’s Office of Evaluation Sciences to develop and design these evaluations. I am looking forward to seeing work begin on these projects and to see how each of the proposal teams use the evidence generated to improve their program and inform decision-making.
What skills or knowledge have you gained during your time at EPA that you find most valuable?
Throughout my time in this fellowship, I have had the opportunity to develop a multitude of skills, including professional communication, presentation, quantitative, qualitative research/analysis, project coordination, and evaluation skills. I have also gained knowledge related to evaluation methods, the innerworkings of the federal government, how policy informs government action and decision making, and how programs across EPA contribute to the Agency’s mission.
Do you have any advice for candidates pursuing a fellowship training position at EPA?
My advice for future candidates pursuing this fellowship would be to ask questions. Coming into my fellowship, I had no idea what to expect, or even what I would be interested in working on, but I asked a lot of questions and in doing so, I found myself collaborating on multiple projects that I am passionate about. I would also advise future candidates to develop good relationships with others both in your office and outside of your office. Making good friends and working relationships with my EPA colleagues has provided me with so much insight into the various programs at EPA and their importance. Lastly, for someone like me who is interested in multiple subject areas, I would say dip your toe in several different areas if possible. This has allowed me to not only figure out what I am passionate about within my office at EPA, but also has allowed me to develop different skills simultaneously.